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Amazon.com Born, the debut album by four conservatory-trained young women, has little to do with classical music. It's a gimmick, fusing a string quartet of frivolous femmes, spicy girls who all want to be "Posh," with dance beats, a big production mixing their violins, viola, and cello with polished electronics. Taking themselves less than seriously--they played the James Bond theme at their Royal Albert Hall debut--pop "Victory" looks assured. This single bounces along with a dash of Rossini's Barber of Seville and a real sense of pop melodrama, in spirit little different from what guitarist John Williams did with his rather less photogenic band Sky in the late 1970s. What may surprise is that tracks such as the frenetic world-dance "Quixote" are penned by the film composer Magnus Fiennes, brother of the more famous Ralph and Joseph. "Winter" adds Jean Michel Jarre-style synth and voice-over to the ghost of Vivaldi and the infectious beat goes on, and on, and on. Sex sells, and Bond's success seems assured. This is a state-of-the-art product, but with a bonus remix of "Victory" by Mike Batt of Wombles fame, just don't expect it to be art. Gary S. Dalkin Asian edition of the classical crossover act's 2001 album includes one bonus track, 'Viva!', which is not included on the domestic version. Decca. 2001.This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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01. Quixote
02. Winter
03. Victory
04. Oceanic
05. Kismet
06. Korobushko
07. Alexander The Great
08. Duel
09. Bella Donna
10. The 1812
11. Dalalai
12. Hymn
13. Victory (Mike Batt Mix)
14. Viva!

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Amazon.com Bond is a string quartet made up of four good-looking women, two from Australia, two from Great Britain. Their training is in purely classical music, which this CD certainly is not. Their previous CD was banned from the UK classical charts, presumably because of the overly insistent use of beats and other intrusions, and this CD too contains African, electro, Latin and hip-hop beats. Bond will be the first to acknowledge that they're heavily influenced by the club scene and pop culture from London to Bangkok. Here they are joined by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the sound is enormous: there's level upon level of overdubbing. Some of the tracks have, as their basis, classical works: Pachelbel's Canon, snippets of Swan Lake, the Nutcracker, Carmen's Habanera, Brahms' Hungarian Dance no. 5, Barber's Adagio for Stings. But the sound we get is lush, beat-heavy, club-ish, full of excitement and basic rhythms, and the "classical" connection--aside from the melodies from the above-mentioned pieces--must be taken on faith. The women's solo playing, if there is any, is not audible. The over-riding feel is disco; this is for dancing and for creating a mood of excitement. Robert Levine

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01. Explosive
02. Scorchio
03. Midnight Garden
04. Lullabye
05. Samba
06. Hungarian
07. I'll Fly Away
08. Dream Star
09. Highly Strung
10. Adagio lor Strings
11. Senorita
12. Explosive (Orion & Ed Leal Production)
13. Allegretto
14. Shine
15. Fuego
16. Strange Paradise
17. Speed
18. Big Love Adagio
19. Kashmir
20. Gypsy Rhapsody